Despite being ranked atop the 1A Conference for much of the regular season, Williams High School did not dominate its way to its first state softball title.

In fact, the Vikings had to come back from three runs down in both their semifinal win over Superior High School and their state championship victory Saturday, May 15, over San Manuel at Peoria’s Rose Mofford Sports Complex.

“And they’ve done that all year,” said head coach Raul Hatch, whose 1A title was his second after a 2A trophy in 2009 with Camp Verde High School. “They’ve scored more runs with two outs than they have with any other. Their mind has been so solid this whole tournament.”

In the title game, it was in the third inning, after San Manuel junior pitcher Jazmyne Waddell had induced a groundout and a strikeout, that the hits just kept on coming. In about a five-minute span, Mortensen, Aaliyah Alvarado, Cecelia Soto and Bradyn Larimore turned a 3-0 shutout controlled by the Miners into a 5-3 hit parade of singles, doubles and other acquisitions of extra bases.

“We scored more,” Mortensen said. “We’ve done it the whole year. All of our [runs] have come in two-out rallies.”

This spurt of death that loaded the bases, cleared them, then put two runners back on again, the Miners couldn’t recover from, despite scoring one more time in the seventh inning off a throwing error to first base by Vikings catcher Cheznee Carter. 

“All we’ve ever talked about is ‘Win an inning,’” Hatch added. “‘Win an inning. Win an inning.’

“As we win innings, we change the number on the board. They never once thought they were out of it.”

Another double by Alvarado was converted by senior Chyanne Echeverria into an RBI and insurance run in the bottom of the sixth inning, giving Williams all the cushion it needed.

“Aaliyah has been clutch this tournament,” Hatch said. “All 1-9 girls hit the ball. The bench players come in, they’ll do it. It depends on who’s stepping up at the time.”

Several different Vikings in the batting order had to provide support in order to atone for sloppy fielding, falling behind 1-0 before they even had a chance to bat in the first inning.

Williams also overcame three more errors in the third inning that ended up scoring Miners senior Victoria Zazueta and junior infielder Aubrey Encinas, whose single became an unearned inside-the-park home run after the middle of the Williams infield couldn’t handle the relay throw from the outfield.

“They showed jitters early because they’ve never been to this game before,” Hatch said. “But they showed their tenacity. You can see that.”

Particularly Mortensen, whose mix of heat on her fastball, lasting well into the sixth inning, and well-placed pitches on the inside and outside corners of the plate held the rest of the team together until the offense could catch up.

“This team is the most dedicated, hardest-working team I’ve been able to coach,” Hatch said. “They just don’t quit. 

“They have it, and they know it, and they just were comfortable this whole tournament.”

All that was left for Mortensen was the celebration. She can move on to junior college softball resting easy in the knowledge that her final win of her career was her 11th of the season, placing her among 1A’s top three pitchers in the category and in earned-run average.

The winningest pitcher in the conference is her counterpart, Waddell, a southpaw who is also one of the state’s top strikeout pitchers, right-handed or left-handed. She will have another chance as an upperclassman and an incoming all-conference incumbent as one of Arizona’s top returning high school softball pitchers.

“She’s the heart of this team,” Miners head coach Angela Gillies said. “She sets such an example for the underclassmen to follow.”